ryan mcnamara

With this job, you don’t always have a chance to write up all the exhibitions you saw and loved, so for me, the 2014 year-end review is a Godsend. It gives me a chance to give a shout out to everything I saw and loved. And this year, there was an awful lot of it. May 2015 be this bountiful and more.

The only link that seems into Halloween this year is this photo of Taylor Swift wooking wike a sad unicorn. [The Cut on Twitter]

Toast editor Mallory Ortberg, the brains behind such art-historical lists as “Women Having a Horrible Time at Parties,” breaks down her thought process. “You read these [classics] in high school and the big question you ask is, Is Hamlet mad? Another big question to ask is, Is Hamlet an asshole?” [The Cut]

It’s that time of year when your inbox becomes nothing but press releases for what’s happening at next month at the Miami art fairs. Today’s tip: Ryan McNamara will enact his much-lauded 2013 Performa commission, “MEƎM: A Story Ballet About the Internet,” during Art Basel. [Art Basel]

Planning on going out tonight for Halloween? Why not memorize some of the worst jokes to tell at tonight’s parties? [Reddit]

This was a performance that used very little means (not much more than leotards and a speaker) to achieve a huge impact. Here’s what we had to say about the piece, but basically, it was just really good.

With all the extra time on our hands during the slow months, we can finally check out a few works everybody’s been talking about. The legendary Sarah Sze-Venice Biennale Pavillion comes to the Bronx; a Ryan McNamara performance comes to the High Line; and Internet artists come to Spectacle Theater.

Artists Space redesigned their website, getting rid of their big, neon, triangular, blinking web 1.0 cursor. [Artists Space via Rhizome]After the opening of Yayoi Kusama’s current show at David Zwirner, people were waiting in line for hours to see Yayoi Kusama’s “Infinity Rooms.” The gallery’s solution to this ridiculous problem: 45-second-long sessions inside the rooms. [Wall Street Journal]

This profile of David Zwirner doesn’t spill too many trade secrets, but offers a clear history of Zwirner’s rise and the sheer volume of business being done in the upper tiers of the art world. [The New Yorker]

“He spoke to his paintings. They were his friends, the loyal companions that didn’t exist in his real life.” Der Spiegel profiles Cornelius Gurlitt, best known as the man responsible for hiding a recently unearthed collection of Nazi-looted artworks. [Der Spiegel]

Citing rising rents in a building owned by Cooper Union, St. Marks Bookshop is moving a few doors down in the East Village. [CBS]

Last night, members of Free Cooper Union put on dinner-theater reading at e-flux where they read aloud from documents leaked from their college’s trustees. In case you missed it, there’s a livestream. [Free Cooper Union]

Oddly, Peter Schjeldahl begins his review of Isa Genzken’s show at MoMA by painting a picture of her as a fairly unknown artist. [The New Yorker]

Thanks to Performa, we’re looking forward to a month of actual art—hopefully with less of a commercial focus than we’re used to seeing around New York. Given Performa’s ability to identify great artists, its depth of historical engagement, and the independent nature of performance art, you’re bound to find some great work this month. It’s also humongous (for better or worse). You need our guide.

The Cat Show at White Columns has everything and nothing to do with cats. Everything, because most of the 134 artworks show cats or cat-related ephemera—like litter boxes, scratching posts, or yarn. Nothing, because the themes of many of these works aren’t about cats at all.

February: a month of multiple things happening, both here and in other places, often at the same time. Which things should you watch occur, and where and when will they occur? We know. Only we know. Enjoy.